Create an in-app message

Go to Engage › In-App and click New message. Choose Blank message, or Start from a template for a ready-made Ask people to update, Rate the app or Quick question message.

The composer has six steps: Message, Trigger, Audience, Experiment, Limits and schedule and Check and launch. Drafts can be incomplete; Save draft works at any time.

In Message, pick a Template (see Formats) and fill in Title, Message and Image.

Under What people can do, choose:

• Tap a button: up to two buttons, plus an optional action for a tap on the message itself.
• Answer a question: stars or a choice. See Surveys and ratings.

Each button has a label and an action:

Messages with an app-only action never show on the web. A push permission message is skipped for people who already granted it.

Set how the message closes:

• People can close it without answering: close button, tap outside or swipe. Turn it off for something that must be acted on, such as a required update. The message then stays until a button or the message is tapped.
• Show a close button
• Dim the app behind the message

Pick Colours from a theme or set your own, and an Orientation if the message only works one way.

Insert a value adds a person's attribute or a property of the triggering event, with a fallback:

Hi {{ user.first_name | default: "there" }}
{{ event.plan_name | default: "Your plan" }} is one tap away

Fields work in the title, message, button labels and links. In a link, the value is URL-encoded and can't supply the scheme or host. If a field has no value and no fallback, the message isn't shown for that trigger.

In Trigger, choose what shows the message:

Add another trigger allows up to five; any one fires the message.

For Medly: A screen is viewed, screen Plans.

Under When to show it, a Delay of a few seconds lets the screen settle. After the delay the message is re-checked and shown only if it still applies. A waiting message is dropped if the app goes to the background.

In Audience, choose:

• Everyone: every visitor of the project.
• People in a segment: refreshed hourly, so people become eligible within about an hour of joining. See Segments.

Under Conditions on the device (optional), add up to ten conditions. All must hold at trigger time. The device checks them itself, with no delay.

For Medly: Times an event happened plans_viewed is above 2, and User attribute subscribed is not true.

In Experiment, add a Goal (built-in event, custom event, screen or purchase, within 1, 3 or 7 days, or 30 days for purchases), a Control group, and up to two extra content variants. See Experiments.

The control group and number of variants are fixed at launch.

In Limits and schedule, set How often one person sees it: at most so many times per visit, day, week or ever. Day and week allow up to 20. Leave a box empty for no limit.

Visit, day and week limits are per device. The "ever" limit also holds across a person's devices and reinstalls, once they're identified.

The project caps messages per device per visit and per day (10 each by default, in Engagement Settings). Not held back by the project limit exempts a message that must always show; it then doesn't count toward that limit either.

Priority runs from 1, lowest to 10, highest. When several messages match, only the highest priority shows; on a tie, the older message wins. One message is on screen at a time, with at most one waiting.

Under When it runs, set a start and an end, or Until I end it. These are one moment for everyone, entered in your time zone. Only on certain days or hours follows each device's clock, so 09:00 is local. A window such as 22:00 to 06:00 crosses midnight.

Under See it on a device, enter a User identifier and click Send test. Save first: the test uses the last saved version.

Use the identifier your app gives the SDK (Grovs.userIdentifier on iOS, Grovs.setUserIdentifier() on the web). The test goes to all of that person's devices, up to 50, and shows at each device's next sync within 30 minutes. It ignores triggers, conditions, limits and schedule, shows once, and isn't counted in the report.

The 30-minute window outlasts the web SDK's 15-minute sync, so an open tab still gets the test. After 30 minutes it expires; send it again.

A test is refused if nobody in the project has that identifier, or the message isn't complete enough to launch. Browsers skip tests that use an app-only action.

Check and launch summarizes the message in one sentence and lists anything to fix. Click Launch.

• An Everyone message goes Live, or Scheduled if its start is in the future.
• A segment message shows Preparing audience first. If the audience can't be resolved, it returns to Draft with the reason.